While private polls highlighted people’s reluctance to send their kids to school before situation improves, state survey differs
The latest survey was being conducted by the State Council for Education Research and Training
Most parents are willing to send their children to school in case they reopen, show the initial findings of a survey conducted by the State Council for Educational Research and Training, contradicting results of similar private exercises.
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While over 83 per cent of parents favour sending their wards to schools as per the SCERT survey, parent activists questioned its format and wondered why the state is in a hurry to reopen the schools.
The state survey says 77 per cent of urban parents and 79 per cent of semi-urban parents back the idea of sending children to school, while it is 88 per cent in the case of parents from rural Maharashtra.
The survey began on July 9 and is expected to conclude on Monday. The online exercise has already received over 2 lakh responses. It comes at a time when the state has allowed students in Std VIII-XII to return to schools in Covid-free villages.
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About 88% parents in rural areas are ready to send their kids to school, the survey by SCERT has found
“How is this possible? Who are these parents?” questioned Anubha Shrivastava, president of the India Wide Parents Association. She said no parent she knows has spoken about wanting to send their wards to school, particularly with the fear of the third Covid-19 wave.
“Just in the month of May, the state school education department cancelled the board exam because of the pandemic conditions. Now again within two months, they are working on a reopening plan for schools. They have already issued instructions to reopen classes VIII to XII in rural areas. All this when the higher education department is not even thinking of reopening colleges as yet to first take stock of the situation for a couple of months. We do not understand what is pressing the school education department of Maharashtra to hurry reopening of schools,” added Shrivastava.
Another parent activist, Prasad Tulaskar, pointed at the way the survey is being conducted. “As a parent, if you ask me if I would want schools to reopen, I would respond positively as children are missing out on the regular way of development. But this clearly comes with conditions such as if pandemic conditions are resolved, if the city has zero Covid cases or the least requirement is vaccination for children.”
Raising question marks over the method of opinion collection, he added, “This survey has offered no option but a blanket answer in either yes or no. This might have confused several parent respondents. Sending children to schools now is not only dangerous for them but for the entire house and locality.”
83
Overall percentage of parents backing the idea
88
Percentage of parents ready to send kids to schools in rural areas
77
Percentage of urban parents who favour the idea
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